Though Twitter boats 645 million users across the world, only 14 percent of health policy researchers reported using Twitter – and approximately 20 percent used blogs and Facebook – to communicate their research findings over the past year, according to a new study. In contrast, sixty-five percent used traditional media channels, such as press releases or media interviews. While participants believed that social media can be an effective way to communicate research findings, many lacked the confidence to use it and felt their academic peers and institutions did not value it or respect it as much as traditional media and direct contact with policy makers.

Atomic-scale snapshots of a bimetallic nanoparticle catalyst in action have provided insights that could help improve the industrial process by which fuels and chemicals are synthesized from natural gas, coal or plant biomass.

A surface catalyst with a built-in sensor: that's what chemists built by bridging a size gap on the nano-scale. Their silver nanoparticles combine plasmon resonance with catalytic activity, making SERS and other analytical data available in real time on a surface catalyst.

Scientists have come up with a method of synthesizing a new type of nickel-carbon compound. Heterofullerenes are hollow molecules with a nearly-spherical shape, which, unlike the typical fullerenes, contain atoms of elements other than carbon. Such compounds were synthesized quite a while ago, in 1991, but till now no heterofullerenes containing nickel, or any other transition metal, have been obtained.

A newly built mini-supermarket was opened last autumn in Norway by a government minister to the sound of a brass band. Throughout the winter, it used 30 per cent less electricity than four comparable stores in the capital of mid-Norway, where of course the outdoor temperature was the same for all of them.

Gamma and neutron imaging offer possible improvements over existing techniques such as X-ray or CT, but their safety is not yet fully understood. Using computer simulations, imaging the liver and breast with gamma or neutron radiation was found to be safe, delivering levels of radiation on par with conventional medical imaging, according to researchers.

Two new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) have been found in the atmosphere by a group of scientists. Scientists made the discovery by comparing today's air samples with air collected between 1978 and 2012 in unpolluted Tasmania, and samples taken during aircraft flights. Measurements show that all but one of the new gases have been released into the atmosphere in recent years.